


Doppelganger

by KinbariTeaHeathen



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, linked universe (fandom)
Genre: ...decided to go full out RavioLi because why not, ...not before Ravio robs him blind though, Dark Link messed up his spell big time, Dark gets called Dink, Imposter Redemption Arc, Legend is a hoarder, Memes, Shadow is here for comedy and plot, and Ravio is trying to get him to stop bringing random things home, and everyone knows who it is, because i like to think im funny, doesnt happen in chapter 1 but it WILL happen, its Not Good For Business Link. You Have To Sell Some Stuff Link., not to his face though (yet), there is one imposter among us, this was written under the file name Impasta, yes i did to try to fit a ton of meme references in here no there is no reward if you find them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinbariTeaHeathen/pseuds/KinbariTeaHeathen
Summary: Legend, upon being kidnapped by Dark Link, awakens to find that Dark has created a Doppelganger to replace him. Now normally, you'd think, this would worry a person, however..."There was a minor miscalculation in the spell.""Minor?! His hair's an entirely different colour!"Or, in other words, that one time Legend got an Imposter, except the imposter is really bad at impostering.
Relationships: Link/Ravio (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 168





	1. there is 1 imposter among us

**Author's Note:**

> finishing and posting the first chapter of this fic is my birthday present to myself lol.

Legend could feel the sleep spell tugging at him. He did his best to resist it, although clearly it wasn't doing much for him, as Dark Link continued to walk while carrying him, unhindered. Legend paused for a moment as the realization that he, literally one of the only ones in the group who was excellent at breaking out of jail cells and the like, was being captured hit him. 

“I, I love this, I love everything about this.” He slurred. 

“Oh yeah?” Dark said, snickering, but not even pausing in his stride, “What do you like about it?” 

“I.... I'll tell you what-”

“Actually, you know what? I don't want to know.” Dark said, and with a snap of his fingers, Legend was rendered fully unconscious. 

-

When Legend next awoke, Dark was no longer carrying him. Instead, he was tightly tied to a tree. Shaking off the remnants of the sleep spell, he quickly took a mental stock of his items. Finding, to his surprise, that none of the items he always carried on him had been taken away. 

This included Ravio's bracelet. 

Well, this made getting away a lot easier than he had planned for it to be. Despite the easy means of escape though, he didn't bother moving, figuring that, at the very least, he could find out more about what Dark's plan was before he escaped back to the others. This whole ordeal would be pointless if he didn't gather _some_ information. 

“Ah, I see you're awake.” 

Legend turned his head to see Dark step out from the shade of a neighbouring tree. He rolled his eyes in response to the dramatic entrance, he got enough of this kind of drama from Four's Shadow. 

The second person to come out of the shadows surprised him though. 

He looked exactly like Legend, down to the smallest detail. The hat, the face, the clothes, he was a perfect copy of him. The copy however, had no expression, it's eyes dull and soulless. As far as Legend could tell, it was just a blank slate, for now. In just an instant of seeing him, Legend immediately knew what Dark's plan was. Or well, at least a part of it. 

But there was just one thing...

“Okay, not that like, this whole thing isn't kinda bad, but like, why the _fuck_ does he have green hair?” Legend asked. Dark shrugged. 

“There was a minor miscalculation in the spell.” He said.

“A minor-” Legend sputtered. “That's a whole other fucking colour right there!”

“I'm sure it'll be fine.” 

“You think they won't notice that my hair's _bright fucking green_?!?”

“I'm sure he'll be able to come up with some excuse.” Dark said, “Well, after I copy your personality onto him of course.” 

“And you think I'm gonna just let you do that?” Legend asked, “If you want my personality, you're gonna have to kill me for it.” 

“Now now, there's no need for that.” Dark said, walking over to him, dragging the copy behind him by the hand. “Besides, it's not like you have much of a choice.” 

Now, Legend could've escaped by this point. He could run back to the others, and tell them all about how Dark planned to replace one of them with a fake to infiltrate their group. They could prepare for future, more well made imposters. 

But then again, what better way to learn than through experience? 

...It wasn't like they wouldn't immediately realize that this wasn't the real him anyways. Seriously, the hair is a dead give away. 

And so, instead of turning into a painting before Dark could touch him, Legend let Dark's hand fall on top of his head. He let the magic flow through him, and back into the copy. He watched as the imposters eyes changed from soulless to brimming with life. 

“There, that should do it.” Dark finally said, lifting his hand off of Legend's head, turning to face the imposter, placing a bag of rupees in his hand. Legend mentally laughed at the fact that Dark had given the imposter an _allowance_. 

“You already know what to do right?” Dark said. The imposter nodded in response. “Good. Off you go then.” 

Dark watched the imposter leave, and then turned back around, ready to deal with the Hero of Legend, only to find that he wasn't there. He had vanished, the ropes that had bound him laying useless on the ground. He paused for a moment, realizing that, now, there were _two_ Legend's on the loose. And then he laughed. 

“Well,” He said, “If nothing else, this will at least prove to be interesting.” 

-

Watching his doppelganger walk through the forest, Legend was just about ready to lose his mind. 'A minor miscalculation' Dark had said, but _holy shit_ , there was no fucking way this clone was going to be able to pass as him. For one, as already said, the bright green hair was a dead give away. However, there was more to it than that. As an example, the clone wasn't simply walking through the forest, oh no, he was _skipping_. Legend did not skip. Ever. Not to mention the fact that the clone had somehow found a forget-me-not, and had put the flower into his hair. 

Legend would never be caught _dead_ doing any of this. 

Well. He _might_ make an exception if the flower was a hibiscus, but that was for personal reasons, not simply because he thought the flower looked nice. ...And he wouldn't skip. 

Either way, Legend was, quite honestly, somewhat looking forward to the reactions the others would give upon seeing the fake him. Which, of course, was why instead of sticking around Dark, he had chosen to follow his clone as a painting. He was sure to get at least some entertainment out of this. 

-

“Oh hey, uh, Legend?” Hyrule said, upon seeing 'Legend' exit the woods. He, along with Warriors, who was beside him, took a moment to process what they were seeing. Then, Hyrule gestured to 'Legend's hair and said; “Uh. Watcha got there?” 

“A flower.” Was all 'Legend' replied, before skipping, _skipping_ , off to where Wild was finishing cooking dinner. Hyrule and Warriors stood in silence for a minute, watching him. Then Warriors snorted. 

“Okay.” He said, “So. We're both one hundred percent in agreement that that's.... _not_ Legend, right?” 

“Oh, no, yeah, no way in hell is that Legend.” Hyrule agreed, “But like. What should we do about it?” 

“Good question.” Warriors said, taking a moment to think about it. “I suppose we should wait until the others are here before we do anything.” 

“What are you two talking about?” Wind asked, walking over with Four by his side. “What's going on- oh. What's up with Legend's hair?” 

“That's not Legend, Wind. It's a fake.” Four said. 

“Oh. Oh, I really should've guessed that.” Wind said. 

“Well I mean, he certainly seemed like Legend to me.” Wild said, suddenly appearing beside Hyrule with two bowls of soup in his hands. While they hadn't been looking, Wild had given 'Legend' some supper and sat him down on a log by himself, before walking over to them with Hyrule and Warriors' bowls in hand. 

“Wh- what do you mean 'he seemed like Legend'?” Warriors asked, “His hair is bright green and he skipped over to you! _Skipped_!”

“Maybe he's just in a good mood!” Wild argued, “None of that is definite proof that he isn't Legend.” 

Twilight, having overheard the conversation at this point, joined in. 

“I hate to break this to you Wild, but I seriously doubt that that's Legend.” He said. Wild pouted. 

“You guys have no proof though! You can't just claim that somethings up without any proof.” 

“ _His hair is bright green_ -” Hyrule started to argue, but was interrupted by Warriors. 

“You know what Wild? You're right.” He said, “But, I do have an idea on how to prove to you that this _isn't_ Legend.” 

“Go right ahead.” Wild said, and without further prompting, Warriors took his bowl of soup out of Wild's hands, and proceeded to walk over to where 'Legend' sat. 

And proceeded to fake trip, spilling his soup onto 'Legend's lap. 

“Oh, Legend I'm so sorry!” Warriors said, standing up and pulling some rags out of a nearby bag. 'Legend' waved him off. 

“It's fine, I should be sorry, I was in your way.” He said. 

As Warriors helped 'Legend' start drying himself off, he turned slightly and gave Wild a 'do you _see_ ' look. Wild sighed in defeat. 

“Okay, no, yeah, you guys are right.” He said, “There is no way that's Legend.” 

“I'm glad you agree.” Twilight said, “Now, how to deal with this...”

“We can't just confront him about it.” Sky said, making the others jump, as they had thought he'd been asleep. He hadn't been though, he was just listening. “For all we know, he could be Dark Link in disguise, and we are seriously under prepared to deal with that.” 

“There's only one way to find out I guess.” Four shrugged, before tapping lightly on the ground where his shadow lay. “Hey Shadow, you got a second?” 

“Yeah sure what's up?” Shadow said, popping out of the ground. Four simply pointed at 'Legend' in response. “Oh. Oh I see.” 

“Well? What is he?” Wind asked. 

“Okay, good news is, he's not Dark Link.” Shadow said, and the others let out a brief sigh of relief. “Bad news, he's not Legend either.” 

“We figured that much out.” Twilight said, clearly referencing 'Legend's bright green hair. “But that still doesn't explain what he is.” 

“Well, I think he's meant to be a clone.” Shadow said, “But I think Dink must've messed something up in the spell.” 

Four snorted. 

“Dink?” He asked. Shadow smirked. 

“It's just my little ol' nickname for Dark Link.” He said, “It's shorter, funnier, and much easier to say.” 

“As much as I love that name, I think you guys are forgetting something important here.” Time said, sitting down beside Twilight. 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Wind asked. 

“Like the location of the _real_ Legend?” 

There was a moment of silence as everyone was simultaneously struck by the realization that, oh shit, _they don't know where the real Legend is_. 

And then there was panic. Subdued panic, as to not alert the imposter, or to distract Warriors from the duty he had at some point taken on of distracting the imposter, but panic nonetheless. 

“Holy Hylia, I can't believe we just _forgot_ that the real Legend is missing!” Hyrule said, head in his hands in distress. “How are we going to find him?!” 

“I _think_ I have enough magic to do a quick area search.” Shadow said, “It might not be very accurate though.” 

“Please try.” Hyrule said. Shadow closed his eyes in concentration. Everyone waited in silence, not wanting to interrupt lest they mess up whatever kind of magic Shadow was using for his area search. Surprisingly, it didn't take very long. 

“Found him.” Shadow said, “I'll be right back.” 

And before the other could argue about how potentially dangerous going by himself could be, Shadow faded into the ground, presumably teleporting to Legend's location. 

“Do you think he'll be okay?” Hyrule asked. Four shrugged. 

“Meh. Probably.” 

-

Shadow was surprised to find no signs of Dark when he appeared behind Legend. Well, actually, he supposed he shouldn't be surprised, considering that Legend was the hero with the most experience, not to mention the sheer amount of items he was always carrying. He had probably used some random magic bullshit in order to escape. 

Speaking of Legend, the man in question was currently leaning up against a nearby tree. He didn't seem all that surprised to see Shadow, but oh boy, did he look _pissed_. 

“I cannot _believe_ that Wild genuinely thought that was me. His hair and personality are entirely different!” He said, seeming to be just barely restraining himself from shouting in frustration. “Not to mention the others straight up _forgot_ about me!”

“You were listening?” Shadow asked, “Why didn't you just come back to the camp and sort things out yourself?” 

“It was meant to be a kinda test, to see how y'all would handle an imposter. And you know what, you all failed!” Legend said, “Geez. At least Warriors and Time seem to _somewhat_ know what they're doing.” 

“Well I mean, I think everyone was kinda thrown off by how different the Imposter is.” Shadow said, “It was such a wild shift from how you normally act that everyone was ridiculously thrown off.” 

“Yeah, I don't get why he's like that either.” Legend said, his anger at the others for forgetting him starting to calm a little. “You'd think that Dark Link would be better at making imitations considering he is an imitation, but no. He creates an imposter that acts like _that_.”

“Yeah I think Dink must've really messed up on this one.” Shadow said, smirking as he floated a little in the air, crossing his legs. 

“He said something about 'messing up the spell'-, wait, what did you just call him?” Legend asked, perplexed, but also barely restraining himself from laughing. 

“Oh did you not hear that part of the conversation? It's just my little nickname for him. I just shortened his name because I found it a bit to long.” Shadow explained, while slowly turning to float upside down. “Also, I totally guessed that he messed up the spell.” 

“By the line of logic you're going with there, doesn't that mean we should call you Sink?” Legend asked, smirking. 

Shadow paused, before slowly turning himself right side up, his eyes changing from their usual faded silver-blue colour to a glowing red. 

“If you _ever_. Call me that again.” He started, snarling a little, showing how his teeth had sharpened slightly, becoming fangs. “ _I'll fucking kill you_.” 

“Like, how would you kill me?” Legend asked, truly unconcerned about Shadow's threat, fully knowing that it was incredibly unlikely that he'd go through with it. “Also cut it out with the 'scary eyes', we both know that it just wastes your own energy.” 

“...Whatever.” Shadow tsked, letting his eyes fade back to their usual colour. “Doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't call me 'Sink' ever again.” 

“Would you let me call you 'Sink' if I called Vio, Blue, Red, and Green, 'Vink', 'Bink', 'Rink', and 'Gink'?” Legend asked, not actually curious but just needing to get the thought out of his head. 

“Absolutely not but holy shit, they would be called that if we follow that naming convention wouldn't they.” Shadow said, suddenly looking like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. “Thanks for saying that Legend, I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about it now, you've truly ruined my life. I could be staring at the face of my future child and I will not be able to think of anything other than what you just said.” 

“Oh shut it you drama queen.” Legend said, proceeding to ignore Shadow's look of mock offense. “I've had enough of this bullshit. I'm going to go stay the night at my house.” 

“Hey wait, you can't just-” 

Legend didn't let Shadow finish, instead choosing to activate his Pegasus Boots and run away at top speed, leaving Shadow in the woods by himself. 

-

When Shadow returned to the group he was immediately bombarded by questions. 

“What happened?” 

“Was Dink there?” 

“Is Legend okay?” 

“Legend's fine.” Shadow answered, leaning against the wooden log Four was sitting on, as he had grown too tired to float. Despite the fact that he was stronger at night, teleporting between locations still took a lot out of him. “And no, Dink wasn't there. Which reminds me, Li-, _Four_ , remind me to talk to you later about your names.”

“Why on Earth do you want to talk about our names?” Four asked, confused. 

“Legend just brought up a good point, that's all.” Shadow said. 

“Okay, but, if Legend is okay, why didn't he come back to camp?” Warriors asked.

“Better question is why aren't you distracting the imposter? I thought that you had taken on that job?” Shadow asked in return. 

“Oh, he fell asleep a while ago.” Sky answered on Warriors behalf, “We were just debating what we should do about that before you got back.” 

Shadow sat up a little in order to peer over Sky's shoulder and, sure enough, curled up in Legend's bedroll lay the imposter. 

“...Personally I think we should just leave him be.” Shadow said. Four snorted. 

“You just want us to redeem him so you can have another redeemed villain to talk to.” He said. 

“That is _not_ why-” Shadow started to yell, but was immediately shushed by the others. They all shared a worried look over at the imposter, but thankfully, he still appeared to be fast asleep. 

“Ignoring the issue over what to do with _him_ , you didn't answer my question, why didn't Legend come back to camp?” Warriors asked, again. Shadow sighed. 

“He said he was going to stay at his house for the night.” He said, “Quite frankly, I'm tempted to join him. Sleeping out in the middle of the woods instead of in a bed is _exhausting_.” 

“Oh yeah, Legend's house is near here isn't it.” Wild said, “Why didn't we just go there for the night instead of setting up camp?” 

“It's too late to think about that now.” Twilight said, “We've already set up camp, and it's already dark out. Not to mention that Wind and Sky fell asleep while you guys were talking.” 

The group looked over at where Twilight was pointing to see Sky and Wind curled up together in Sky's bedroll. Time sighed. 

“We will deal with the issue of the imposter once Legend returns in the morning. For now, we should all get some sleep.” He said. 

“I'll take first watch.” Warriors said, moving to sit by the fire, watching as everyone else slowly got ready for bed. With the Legend imposter still in their midst, it wasn't very likely that anyone would be sleeping well tonight.


	2. Imposter Interlude + Apple Tea At Ravio's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imposter realizes his job isn't going to be as easy as he thought. Meanwhile, Legend and Ravio talk about Legend's Hoarder Habits.

Imposter woke up. 

He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep for, but it was still dark out, and the moon was still high in the sky, so it couldn't have been any earlier than 1am. Still though, he cursed himself for actually falling asleep. He was supposed to have only _pretend_ to fall asleep, not actually do it. But whatever. He was awake now, and it was still night time, so hopefully he could get his mission done and over with. 

....To be honest, he didn't really feel like killing one of the Link's, but that was what Dark had told him to do, so, clearly, he _had_ to do it. 

.....Right? 

Pretending to still be asleep, Imposter rolled over, sneakingly opening one eye to see where everyone was. 

Oh. 

Well that was a problem. 

Admittedly, he should have expected that there would always be a person to keep watch, but he hadn't really factored that into his plans. Seeing that Warriors was sitting at the fire, vigilant, Imposter knew that he wouldn't be able to complete the plan tonight. 

...Hopefully, Dark Link wouldn't get mad at him for not doing it on the first day. 

Rolling over again so that he was facing away from Warriors, Imposter pondered what to do. Clearly, if they were going to have someone keeping watch every night, his original plan of simply waiting until everyone was asleep and then killing one of them wasn't going to work. He needed a new plan, and he needed one _fast_. He only had three days until Dark would... 'get rid of him' as he had so eloquently put it. 

Try as hard as he might, Imposter couldn't think of anything that would work. He mentally sighed. If only the Hero of Legend's memories and personality had actually stuck to him more, maybe then he could've been as creative as he was. As it was now, Imposter only had facts, not actual memories. He knew that Legend's uncle had died. He knew that Legend had been struck by lightning, and ended up on an island called Koholint. He knew that he lived together with some merchant named Ravio. Imposter knew all of this, and yet, he didn't actually _remember_ any of it like he was supposed to. He had heard Dark mentioning a “minor miscalculation in the spell” while he was talking to the real Hero of Legend.

Imposter figured that that sounded about right. He wasn't supposed to act like this, he knew that much, but at the very least he had managed to fool the other Links. If the other Link's had suspected him in even the slightest, it would've been an instant game over for him. 

...He just hoped he could keep this up for the next two days. Hopefully, by then, he'd have thought of someway to kill one of the others, or how to convince Dark to give him more time. 

....Those were problems he could think about tomorrow. 

-

“Are you sure you don't want to tell me what's bothering you Mr. Hero?” Ravio asked, setting down a cup of apple tea in front of Legend. “I can tell that's something's up.” 

“It's fine, Ravio. Besides, I'm sure you'll find out all about it tomorrow.” Legend said. Ravio frowned at him. 

“It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you came here _without_ the rest of your little hero group, would it? You didn't have a fight with them did you?” He asked, worried. 

“Oh no, it's nothing like that.” Legend answered, “I promise, you'll find out about it tomorrow. Thinking about it now, it's kinda funny actually.” 

“...If you say so.” Ravio said, but still, he couldn't help but be worried. He knew that Legend wasn't always the best with interacting with others, and was concerned that he had gotten into a fight with one of them over something trivial, and was simply saying what he was saying now to cover it up. Well, whatever. He'd just have to trust him on this for now. 

In the meantime....

“Say, what items do you think I should offer your friends? I think that Wild and Four would be quite interested in this fire rod-” 

“Do not sell my stuff.” Legend cut him off. Ravio snorted in response. 

“Oh please, we both know that a good 45% of the stuff in here are things you bought from me.” He said, “And even if they weren't, it is getting rather crowded in here with all this stuff. You have to start selling some of it.” 

“...Just build a storage shed if the amount of stuff in here bothers you that much.” Legend said, sipping his apple tea. “I'm not exactly...willing to part with a lot of the things here.” 

“I know this, and I love you, but you're never going to make any money that way.” Ravio leaned over the table to lightly flick Legend's nose. “At the very least, let me sell some of your outfits and jewelry. I've counted 102 of the exact same tunic, and 37 versions of the exact same necklace.” 

“...Would you believe me if I told you that every single one of those is important to me in its own way?” Legend asked. 

“Absolutely I would not. You just simply cannot pass up the opportunity to collect whatever you find, and you know it.” Ravio said, “At this point, I'm genuinely considering holding an intervention for you. The last time you came home, you had gotten a slight bad luck curse placed on you because you took a ring from one of your friend's worlds.” 

“That has nothing to do with this-” 

“It has everything to do with this. Stop picking up every random object you think is slightly interesting. One of these days, you'll end up with a curse I can't undo.” 

The two of them were silent for a moment, simply staring at each other, before Legend sighed, giving in. 

“Fine. You can sell 2 of my tunics and 3 of the necklaces, and I'll try to get better at not taking cursed objects.” He said, smiling a little when Ravio cheered in response. “Anyways, I'm going to bed. It's late and I need to mentally prepare my self for the shit that's gonna go down tomorrow. I suggest you do the same.” 

“Okay...” Ravio said, as Legend stood up and walked towards his room. “What am I mentally preparing myself for exactly?” 

“You'll see in the morning.” 

“That's not an answer!”


End file.
